COMRADE Abosede Oluwaseun, popularly called Safety, is a former Special Assistant on Students’ Matters to former Governor Rauf Aregbesola in the State of Osun. In this interview with OSUN DEFENDER, he shares the roles he played, alongside other civil society leaders, during last year’s #EndSARS protests in Osun. Excerpts:
#EndSARS protests had come and gone. What is your role in the said protests?
The #EndSARS protests started on October 8, 2020 in Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria. It spread to Osun, with few youths from the Revolution Now movement leading it. Within days, youths in the state, comprising mainly internet fraudsters (yahoo boys), who had had bad experience with the Police, particularly officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), started joining in the protests in droves, particularly when the pictures of happenings in other states started surfacing online. They barricaded Olaiya Junction, erected canopies, brought DJ to play music and totally prevented motorists from plying the route.
As time went by, some bad elements infiltrated them and an initial peaceful protest gradually degenerated into an unruly one. For instance, on the eve of the 4th day of the protests, there were reports of phones and handbags snatching around Olaiya axis. Again, on the 5th day, a bus driver who was probably unaware of the barricade at the junction was chased by some of the protesters until he knocked a young girl down dead in front of the Zenith Bank, close to Aregbe bus stop.
All through this periodthe State Government kept mute but we have it on good intelligence that it thereafter engaged the services of a popular transports union boss to disperse the protesters on the 6th day. A reporter of a private radio station, Rave FM was giving live report to his station when the protesters were being attacked on that day.The thugs carried out their assignment in dispersing the protesters but it boomeranged as the protesters were henceforth more emboldened, and they also brought in armed elements to counter them.At this point, the protest had taken a dangerous dimension,as it had become an armed protest, with protesters determined to continue, as well as protecting themselves from the state-engineered dispersal initiative. The Egbatedo boys, who had been having running battle with the transports union boss’ gang, also took advantage of the situation to be coming to the protest ground in search of the boss himself.
Up till this stage, none of the traditional civil society groups that are usually involved in street protests in Osun, joined the #EndSARS protests. At that point, however, the leadership of the Civil Society groups in Osun resolved to embark on guided intervention through positive redirection of the unpleasant path the protesters were towing. This was borne out of the passion to keep the state safe and peaceful in support of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
What manner of ‘guided intervention?’
The leadership of civil society groups in the state, under the central leadership of Alhaji Waheed Lawal, held a meeting to agree on some modus: viz, to check and end the tendency towards violence; refocus the protest to ‘endPolicebrutality’; and end the tendency towards disruption of public order. Upon coming in, we needed to gain the trust and confidence of a few credible and recognised leaders of the protesters already in charge by assuring that we were with them. We mobilised our structures with disciplined instruction that our involvement was to check the excesses of those already on ground. It worked out fine on the strength of our neutrality and goodwill among the contending forces.
Realising and acknowledging our intervention, most gang members of the warring groups ceased hostility. The transport union boss actually sent emissaries to us to say he was not part of the initial attacks on the protesters and that he was in support of #EndSARS. At this point, we redirected the focus of the protest at the barricade to daily discussions and debates on Nigerian situation andtheway forward, wherein notable cadres were brought into joining the discourse. Mind you, the contending mobsters never dispersed but merely hovered around and kept their distance from the protests venue, which we had substantially normalised.
At this stage, Osun Government officials decided to begin interfacing with us. In fact, we invited some of them to the barricade to address protesters and all went well. At various stages of interface with them, we assured them the protests would continue peacefully, but would not end until the Federal Government addressed the demands of #EndSARS movement and a call off across the country.
But in spite of your interventions, Governor Oyetola was attacked by the protesters when he came to address them.
This world is a global village. Videos and pictures of other states’ governors visiting #EndSARS grounds to solidarise with protesters started surfacing. Osun protesters started asking why Governor Oyetola had refused to come and address them or send message of goodwill. Therefore, agitation for Oyetola appearance grew by day; although, it was more pronounced by Revolution Now elements that have, by then, been relegated to the periphery of the venue along with cultists, touts, fraudsters, etc.
The protest kept growing too but we started noticing strange faces within that periphery, some of whom publicly displayed guns and other dangerous weapon. On the day Mr. Governor chose to come, there was increase in the number of unknown faces around the vicinity of the protest ground and from our investigations, it was not advisable for Mr. Governor to appear that day. We told some government officials interacting with us and the security details to Mr. Governor who sought our opinion on the governor’s intention to appear at the protest ground. The crowd of protesters had grown to amalgam of unidentifiable mob, and whereas we insisted on our advice that the atmosphere was not favourably disposed to Governor coming, the government officials interfacing with us decided to go with the suggestions of some of their colleagues interfacing with some other leaders of the protest who were of differing opinion and insisted he should come. Upon Mr. Governor’s appearance, we did everything to navigate the troubled water by joining others to welcome him from Alekuwodo to the protest ground. We informed some of his aides to brief him on what to say and slogan to use among others to win the heart of the protesters.
The first problem was the failure of the public address system brought by the government team; it was not loud enough to cover half of the ground. The Governor’s voice was also very low. With the breakdown of communication, the situation was getting tense and some people started abusing him. That was when the protesters were shouting ‘Sorosoke……’At this stage, we informed the Governor’s security team that the best thing to do was to create an exit route for the Governor to depart, as his vehicles and convoy were entirely surrounded by a chaotic crowd. They agreed and we mobilised our system to push back the unruly agitators and created a route via Old Fakunle Grammar School for Governor and his team to exit. When this didn’t work and the hooligans came to know what we were doing, we diverted to a small opening towards the Workers’ Drive, where the Governor and his team eventually exploited to manoeuvre out. Then hell was let loose, but the rest is history.Some suspects were arrested by the Police in connection with the attack on the Governor that day and other criminal activities like looting, stealing, assault; among others crimes committed by the touts in the name of the #EndSARS protests. If I am not mistaking, the suspects should be up to 85 and they were paraded at the Police Headquarters in Osogbo some days after.
Do you have any suggestion on future protests?
As a highly disciplined and progressive Civil Society group in Osun, the decision not to join the #EndSARS protest, until the moment itdegenerated, was based on two considerations: One, the impurities of the #EndSARS protests itself, which eventually led to its fiasco; two, we were mindful of the tendencies of the Oyetola government, especially some of its key officials, to blame every disturbance in the state on Aregbesola’s followers. So, that absence of forthright guidance of the protests from the start created a vacuum filled and exploited for score-setting and vested interests by Revolution Now crowd, Yahoo Boys, hooligans, cultists and gangsters. Nature, of course, abhor vacuum, and an otherwise noble protest, at least in theory, became rallying field for those elements. A critical analysis done by us and advised to government officials was that Osun protest ground was unique and unlike those of other statesand not a welcoming scene to the Governor; if that had been accepted, it would have prevented the ugly outcome. Government think-tank must develop capacity and utilise intelligence to relate with every development objectively and specifically. Mind you, I can attach names to all government actors I related with, and if they are sincere, they can verify all I’ve said here as accurate. Finally, for future protests, the people too must be courageous to take ownership of popular causes, and not allow derailment by negative and vested interest groups.
